Science Enabled by Specimen Data
Bazzicalupo, A. L., J. Whitton, and M. L. Berbee. 2019. Over the hills, but how far away? Estimates of mushroom geographic range extents. Journal of Biogeography. https://doi.org/10.1111/jbi.13617
Aim: Geographic distributions of mushroom species remain poorly understood despite their importance for advancing our understanding of the habitat requirements, species interactions and ecosystem functions of this key group of organisms. Here, we estimate geographic range extents (maximum within‐spe…
Chase, B. M., A. Boom, A. S. Carr, M. Chevalier, L. J. Quick, G. A. Verboom, and P. J. Reimer. 2019. Extreme hydroclimate response gradients within the western Cape Floristic region of South Africa since the Last Glacial Maximum. Quaternary Science Reviews 219: 297–307. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.quascirev.2019.07.006
The Cape Floristic Region (CFR) is one of the world's major biodiversity hotspots, and much work has gone into identifying the drivers of this diversity. Considered regionally in the context of Quaternary climate change, climate stability is generally accepted as being one of the major factors promo…
Marciniuk, P., J. Marciniuk, A. Łysko, Ł. Krajewski, J. Chudecka, J. Skrzyczyńska, and A. A. Popiela. 2020. Rediscovery of Cyperus flavescens (Cyperaceae) on the northeast periphery of its range in Europe. PeerJ 8: e9837. https://doi.org/10.7717/peerj.9837
In recent years, three large populations of Cyperus flavescens were found in Poland, the richest occurrence of this species in over 30 years. The goal of this research is to determine the habitat factors lead to the mass occurrence of C. flavescens and the present situation of that species and its h…
Ronquillo, C., F. Alves-Martins, V. Mazimpaka, T. Sobral-Souza, B. Vilela-Silva, N. G. Medina, and J. Hortal. 2020. Assessing spatial and temporal biases and gaps in the publicly available distributional information of Iberian mosses. Biodiversity Data Journal 8. https://doi.org/10.3897/bdj.8.e53474
One of the most valuable initiatives on massive availability of biodiversity data is the Global Biodiversity Information Facility, which is creating new opportunities to develop and test macroecological knowledge. However, the potential uses of these data are limited by the gaps and biases associate…
Brightly, W. H., S. E. Hartley, C. P. Osborne, K. J. Simpson, and C. A. E. Strömberg. 2020. High silicon concentrations in grasses are linked to environmental conditions and not associated with C 4 photosynthesis. Global Change Biology 26: 7128–7143. https://doi.org/10.1111/gcb.15343
The uptake and deposition of silicon (Si) as silica phytoliths is common among land plants and is associated with a variety of functions. Among these, herbivore defense has received significant attention, particularly with regards to grasses and grasslands. Grasses are well known for their high sili…
Chevalier, M., B. M. Chase, L. J. Quick, L. M. Dupont, and T. C. Johnson. 2020. Temperature change in subtropical southeastern Africa during the past 790,000 yr. Geology 49: 71–75. https://doi.org/10.1130/G47841.1
Across the glacial-interglacial cycles of the late Pleistocene (~700 k.y.), temperature variability at low latitudes is often considered to have been negligible compared to changes in precipitation. However, a paucity of quantified temperature records makes this difficult to reliably assess. In this…
Lindelof, K., J. A. Lindo, W. Zhou, X. Ji, and Q. (Jenny) Xiang. 2020. Phylogenomics, biogeography, and evolution of the blue‐ or white‐fruited dogwoods (Cornus)—Insights into morphological and ecological niche divergence following intercontinental geographic isolation. Journal of Systematics and Evolution 58: 604–645. https://doi.org/10.1111/jse.12676
The eastern Asian (EA)–eastern North American (ENA) floristic disjunction represents a major pattern of phytogeography of the Northern Hemisphere. Despite 20 years of studies dedicated to identification of taxa that display this disjunct pattern, its origin and evolution remain an open question, esp…
de Jesús Hernández-Hernández, M., J. A. Cruz, and C. Castañeda-Posadas. 2020. Paleoclimatic and vegetation reconstruction of the miocene southern Mexico using fossil flowers. Journal of South American Earth Sciences 104: 102827. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jsames.2020.102827
Concern about the course of the current environmental problems has raised interest in investigating the different scenarios that have taken place in our planet throughout time. To that end, different methodologies have been employed in order to determine the different variables that compose the envi…
Li, K., J. Wang, L. Qiao, R. Zheng, Y. Ma, Y. Chen, X. Hou, et al. 2020. Diversity of Reproductive Phenology Among Subtropical Grasses Is Constrained by Evolution and Climatic Niche. Frontiers in Ecology and Evolution 8. https://doi.org/10.3389/fevo.2020.00181
Reproductive phenology is sensitive to climatic changes and is associated with species functional types, distribution ranges, and their corresponding climatic niches. Phylogenetic niche conservatism in reproductive phenology also constrains its diversity and the distribution of species. Therefore, w…
Bellot, S., R. P. Bayton, T. L. P. Couvreur, S. Dodsworth, W. L. Eiserhardt, M. S. Guignard, H. W. Pritchard, et al. 2020. On the origin of giant seeds: the macroevolution of the double coconut ( Lodoicea maldivica ) and its relatives (Borasseae, Arecaceae). New Phytologist 228: 1134–1148. https://doi.org/10.1111/nph.16750
Seed size shapes plant evolution and ecosystems, and may be driven by plant size and architecture, dispersers, habitat and insularity. How these factors influence the evolution of giant seeds is unclear, as are the rate of evolution and the biogeographical consequences of giant seeds. We generated D…